Mesothelioma drug in clinical trial to treat lung cancer in combination with radiation
Pemetrexed, which is marketed as Alimta, is a chemotherapy drug that has been FDA-approved to treat malignant pleural mesothelioma. French researchers reported at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference that their Phase I clinical trial suggested that pemetrexed is also tolerated well enough to use a high dose in combination with concurrent radiation therapy to increase its effectiveness as a lung cancer treatment.
The first trial was conducted using pemetrexed along with cisplatin chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the treatment of nine patients with stage III non-small-cell lung cancer. A tenth patient who had begun the trial had to be removed because of disease progression. Seven of the remaining nine patients completed all four chemotherapy cycles, and eight of them completed the radiation therapy.
One patient receiving the highest dose of pemetrexed underwent grade 4 septic shock, indicating dose-limiting toxicity. But for the most part, the pemetrexed was tolerated well enough to justify the increased dose to increase the chance of killing cancerous cells.
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